Quick, when was the last time our country was in a recession? If you don’t know the answer to that question then the impending recession won’t affect you so much. Analysts predict a recession looming on the horizon and the wrong people are worrying about it. The Chicken Little syndrome (“the sky is falling!”) is in full effect because our people watch too much CNN. Folks who don’t even know the definition of recession are talking about pulling their last $20 out of the bank.
The truth is the recession doesn’t affect black people so much because, hell, we’re always in a recession. What’s the difference to us between a recession and just being black in a white man’s world? Aren’t we always the last hired and first fired? Aren’t the words “laid off” as familiar to us as “chicken and waffles”? Don’t we already get stuck with the highest interest rates on anything we buy? Are bankers lining up to give us loans?
The last recession was in 2001, albeit a mild one, but the point is most in the black community don’t remember it. Last night a friend of mine said there hasn’t been a recession in the last 28 years – and yes, he’s black and educated.
Not to make light of a situation that has many white people nervous and checking their stocks every 5 minutes – but, do you own stocks? Do you own a plot of land that doesn’t have a lien on it? Do you have over $5000 in the bank? Do you have at least one major credit card that isn’t in the red? If you made the minimum payment on that credit card over the next 20 years would you pay the balance off?
If your answer to those questions are mostly no, then you have nothing to worry about. You’ll be just fine.
